I7O DE LESSEES
San Francisco, round Gape Horn, is 5,000 leagues,
whereas by Panama it would be only 1,500. For Val-
paraiso the distance would be reduced from 3,000 to
2,000 leagues. The saving in time for sailing vessels
would be sixty days to San Francisco and thirty to
Valparaiso. To this must be added the fact that
steamers and sailing vessels alike would avoid the dan-
gerous passage round Cape Horn. Thus the distance
and the time in going from one part of the globe to the
other would be materially shortened, and there would
be such a reduction in the rates of assurance and
freight that maritime intercourse would scon double
itself, and that many markets now closed to European
commerce would be opened, and provide it with fresh
openings for import and export trade."
The Navigation Committee, having considered that
among the many schemes proposed, some involved the
making of a tunnel, others that of locks, reported that
the opening of the canal would favour sailing vessels
even more than steamers, owing to the advantages
derived by the former from the permanency of trade
winds in the Gulf of Mexico. " As regards the tunnel/*
the report concluded, " the vessels would have to go
through with their mainmasts up, and as the largest
vessels, such as the France and the Annamite, have
very high masts, they would require an altitude of
nearly a hundred feet above the level of the water.
With regard to locks, they must be sufficiently numerous
to admit of fifty vessels going through in a day. This
is the total which has been reached at Suez, and there
is no reason why it should not be equalled, and even
exceeded, by the Panama Canal. It would be neces-